This is (I think) a depressing query, but I was wondering if anyone (Canadians perhaps out there of which there seem to be a few tuning in) knows the story behind the lovely song "Godspeed" by Ron Hynes. I heard it on the radio fading out crossing the border and the announcer said it was for someone -- is it a love song, an old song about a murder or what? Is it on a recent album? Yours, Peter

Dear TFT, thanks for the e-mail. I will post the lyrics to DT. I guess the lyrics do tell it all. I just didn't hear all of it first time around. I wondered why there was this odd mix of anger and grief in the song. You also don't often get an announcer choking up over a song. Many thanks again. Yours, Peter

A lurker passing through who found this site by accident...just wanted to say that Ron Hynes (who hails from my home province of Newfoundland) did indeed write this song for Gene McLellan, and as far as I recall from the publicity at the time, Gene did indeed commit suicide, which is what the song is about. I think it's a very touching and appropriate song for anyone who's committed suicide, and incredibly moving...especially if you ever hear Ron perform it live, as I have had the privilege of doing.

Gene MacLellan was a very beautiful tender man with an incredible gift for songwriting. You should pick up some of his music and while you're at it pick up some of Ron Hynes. Ron Hynes wrote this song about Gene and yes Gene did take his own life. He was a tortured soul as well as a very religious man. Ron has written many amazing songs. The most famous of these would be "Sonnys Dream" which has been recorded all over in the world an in many languages. He also wrote Atlantic Blue. He has about 6 albums I think and he is extremely talented. He is from St. Johns Newfoundland.

Gene was tortured by, among other things, the inequality that is endemic in the world.

He said Snowbird came to him in only a few seconds while walking on Spring ice-pans on the N. Rustico Beach (PEI, Canada) and earned him weakly an average person's annual salary; and did so for many many years. To some this would cause contentment if not elation but to Gene this (from everything I've come to know of his life) triggered tremendous depression caused by his clairvoyant-like empathy for the suffering of others.

A semi-famous anecdote tells of a time he went to his own attic, removed fiberglass insulation, and took it, and installed it himself, in the home of a man who could not afford it -- it has been suggested he wanted to make sure the man's home was warm for an upcoming cold-snap and he knew the heat-loss in his home was a trivial issue given his enormous (relatively) wealth. He intervened directly to alleviate the suffering of others as often as he could but perhaps never felt he was able to make a difference of a magnitude to satiate his own concerns.

Ultimately it was this kind of grotesque inequality, perhaps triggered by Snowbird -- hardly his best tune, that led him to take his own life.

Tears flowed like rain across the Island and around the world (Mexico in particular).

Ron Hynes has dozens of albums and has been turning out a new one nearly every year for the past decade. This prolific outpouring came just as many thought he and his career were in decline.

Ron: I'm deeply sorry about the pictures -- a new camera and a blinding depression were the cause of all the problems. I only wish you'd let me say it to you directly. Our buddy Rik says, "forget it man, he's as big an arsehole as you..." True, but regrets are regrets -- healing comes only from the victim.